5959

Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne 1920

Seated half-length in three-quarter profile to the left, wearing dress uniform and the robes and plumed hat of the Order of the Garter

Oil on canvas, 90.2 x 59.7 cm (35 ½ x 23 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right: P. A. de László / 1920. July. [incised into paint]

Laib L9576 (771) / C14 (35A): Lord Lansdown [sic]

NPG Album 1917-1921, p. 65

Sitters’ Book II, f. 15: Lansdowne July 2d 1920

National Portrait Gallery, London

In 1920, the 5th Marquess of Lansdowne commissioned de László to paint his study-portrait. The artist obliged but took the initiative to paint a more formal portrait on canvas rather than on board. That portrait was completed on 2 July, after three consecutive afternoons of sittings [5959]. Clearly inspired by Lansdowne, de László requested two additional sittings to paint this second portrait for his own pleasure. Instead of keeping this picture for his own collection, he offered it to the Lansdownes, expressing the wish that it be bequeathed to the National Portrait Gallery after the death of the 5th Marquess. It was particularly important to him to consolidate his reputation for posterity, having been released from his internment for less than a year,

The present portrait was executed on 14 and 15 July 1920. In his first portrait, in the same format but full face, Lord Lansdowne was also represented in his Garter robes, but the emphasis laid in his conquering expression and attitude, holding his knight’s sword. Here, de László shifted the focus to the sitter’s status, by giving prominence to the insignia of the Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter. The embroidered heraldic shield of St George’s Cross, obscured in the first portrait, stands out here on Lord Lansdowne’s chest against the midnight blue velvet of his mantle. Above all, it seems de László particularly enjoyed painting the white ostrich plumes of his hat, which he executed with particular bravura, depicting his headgear with a nebula of billowing brushstrokes. As for the sheen of the velvet, it has been rendered by emphasizing the outlines of the mantle with a few decisive strokes of ultramarine blue.

In the correspondence between the 6th Marquis and the artist regarding the commissioning of his [5972] and his daughter Lady Katherine Petty-Fitzmaurice’s portrait [3146], the Marquis noted: “Your portrait of my father in the N.P.G. was when I last saw it, not too badly hung, though I wish one could get nearer to it.”^[1] In de László’s letter of 3 May 1933, he replied: “I agree with you that the portrait of the late Lord Lansdowne was not well placed in the National Portrait Gallery before the pictures there were rearranged. I do hope by now they have changed its place with advantage to the portraits.”^[2]

A contemporary photograph shows that the artist painted the portrait in its Italian Renaissance-style cassetta frame.

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [5960].

PROVENANCE:        

Bequeathed to the National Portrait Gallery by the sitter’s family at the request of the artist, 1928

EXHIBITED:        

•The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, Paintings by Philip A. de László, 26 February- 20 March 1921, no. 7

•M. Knoedler & Co., New York, Paintings by Philip A. de László, 4-16 April 1921, no. 9

•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies By Philip A. de László, M.V.O., June 1923, no. 16

•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies By Philip A. de László, M.V.O., June 1924, no. 14

•National Portrait Gallery, London, 1932, no. 2180

•National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, A Pageant of Canada, 1967-1968, no. 275

•National Portrait Gallery, London, Philip de László, a Special Display, 27 March- 5 September 2010, no. 8

LITERATURE:        

•‘Some Paintings and Drawings by Mr. P. A. de Laszlo [sic]’, The Studio, Vol. LXXXI (81), London, 1921, pp. 44-57, ill., p. 44

•The Bowood Archives, Bowood, Wiltshire

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, p. 344

•Mersey, Viscount, The Viceroys and Governors-General of India, 1757-1947, Murray, 1949, p. 104, ill.

•Amphlett, Hilda, Hats: A History of Fashion in Headwear, 1974, ill.

•Dictionary of National Biography on CD-ROM, Oxford University Press, 1998

•Cannadine, David, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy, 2nd ed. Picador, London 1992, ill. pl. 95

•Simon, Jacob, The Art of the Picture Frame: Artists, Patrons and the Framing of Portraits in Britain, National Portrait Gallery Publications, London, 1996, p. 185

•Amphlett, Hilda, Hats: A History of Fashion in Headwear, Dover Publications, 2003 (reprint of a 1974 work), ill.

•Corbeau-Parsons, Caroline, Philip de László, Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, 2010, pp. 11-12, ill. pl. 8

CC 2008